Song of the Day #158: ‘How Can I Tell You?’ – Cat Stevens

catstevensThis is the first tune that really hit me as a bona fide, lay it all on the line, love song love song. I heard it for the first time back in high school and was struck by how completely earnest it is. That’s actually a quality Cat Stevens brings to most of his work, but this song in particular.

I suppose these lyrics describe an unrequited love, or at least a long-distance relationship. In that sense it definitely has an aura of melancholy, which Alex should appreciate because she is always pointing out that I am drawn to the melancholy in music and film.

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Slumdog Millionaire

slumdogmillOK, now we’re talking. After a long dry spell and a lot of good-not-great movies, I’ve seen a batch of films in the past few weeks that boost 2008’s quality level substantially. And my favorite of all these movies — indeed my favorite of the year so far — is Slumdog Millionaire.

A strange mix of Rocky, Quiz Show and City of God, Slumdog Millionaire is simultaneously like a thousand films before it and like nothing I’ve seen before. That freshness is due to director Danny Boyle’s visceral camerawork and editing as well as the film’s setting in the slums of India. I’ve seen plenty of rags-to-riches stories, and plenty of tales about love defeating the odds, but none that painted such a vivid portrait of hope amidst squalor.

(Minor spoilers follow)

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Song of the Day #157: ‘I Know How to Love You Well’ – Tim McGraw

mcgrawOK, I’m throwing caution to the wind and going with my third theme week in a row. And the unsentimental among you might want to skip the next seven days.

You see, today is the birthday of my beloved wife. So to honor the occasion, I’m highlighting seven of my favorite love songs today through Saturday.

I’m starting with a Tim McGraw song from his Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors album, which Alex bought several years ago for one reason or another. She’s a big Tim McGraw fan, which I find very funny because I wouldn’t expect a Miami-bred Cuban girl to be so country. But I’m always teasing her about being much whiter than I am when it comes to taste in music and television.

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Song of the Day #156: ‘Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters’ – Elton John

eltonI’ve always been fascinated by the writing arrangement between Elton John and Bernie Taupin, wherein John writes all the music and Taupin all the lyrics. It’s hard to imagine the lyrics of ‘Your Song’ or ‘Daniel’ being written completely unaware of the melodies that would one day support them. And it’s equally hard to imagine the music of ‘Levon’ or Tiny Dancer’ being written with no clue what words would fill their spaces.

But I suppose one of those cases must be true, because theirs is not an active collaboration. Their process takes place (as one tribute album alluded to in its title) in two rooms.

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Song of the Day #155: ’29 Palms’ – Robert Plant

plantI’m not really sure how this song made it onto my radar back in 1993. I don’t think it was a huge hit, and I’ve never been a radio listener. Maybe I came across the video on MTV or VH1.

At any rate, I liked it enough to pick up Robert Plant’s Fate of Nations album. But the rest of the album didn’t do anything for me so I eventually sold it back and forgot all about ’29 Palms’ until a couple of weeks ago.

This now becomes a tale of technology, specifically Apple technology.

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